Sir Edmund Barton

Sir Edmund Barton, (born January 18, 1849, Sydney, New South Wales [now in Australia]—died January 7, 1920, Medlow, New South Wales, Australia), statesman who guided the Australian federation movement to a successful conclusion and became the first prime minister of the resulting commonwealth in 1901.

Barton in 1879 entered the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, where he served as speaker (1883–87); he was attorney general in 1889 and 1891–93. In 1891 he assumed leadership of the federation movement and, in the federal convention of that year, helped shape the draft that became the foundation for the eventual commonwealth constitution. The constitution bill passed the New South Wales assembly in 1893, and for the next four years Barton campaigned vigorously for its approval by the public. He led the federal convention of 1897–98 that drafted the final commonwealth constitution bill.

Edmund Barton.State Library of New South Wales (Digital no. a4176026)

Barton went to England in 1900 to guide the new constitution through Parliament, and he returned to Australia to become prime minister later that year. (He was knighted in 1902.) Never thoroughly at home in the partisan atmosphere of the new Australian Parliament, he resigned his ministry in 1903 and became a senior judge on the High Court of Australia, serving until 1920.